"Teacher available to help with cleanup, child care, running errands until school starts back up on Wednesday."

"If you need temp housing for your pets we can accommodate small animals."

"If you have a crawlspace or basement that is flooded, I have an extra submergable pump in my garage here and a fan to help finish the drying."

"I have room for one adult and a small child (i have a 4 year old and 9 month old so plenty of toys/clothes) let me know!"

"Willing to take in a displaced family, single parent, couple or person. Friendly dogs ok!"

Craigslist was full of posts like these from concerned residents, eager to help in the aftermath of the mass flooding that has devastated Boulder County and other parts of Colorado's Front Range for nearly a week, destroying roads, bridges, homes and businesses and claiming numerous lives -- eight dead and more than 700 are still unaccounted for statewide, as of Monday afternoon.

Dozens more posts on the popular site offered help with cleanup from "able bodies" and "strong backs, honest men," some from as far away as Oregon and Pennsylvania, all willing to travel anywhere and do anything to assist those affected by the flood.

Emergency officials have said repeatedly over the past few days to stay home and leave rescue and cleanup efforts to the professionals until after the situation is more subdued. Volunteers are instead being directed to organizations such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army.

But that hasn't stopped residents from banding together to dispense help.

"We have to act now, when they're not inundated with mold," said James Maxwell, spokesman for Boulder Flood Relief, an independently organized group of volunteers who were inspired by the efforts of Occupy Sandy to assist in cleanup after the East Coast was decimated by a hurricane last October. "We can help right now. We can go in, remove the damage before it has a chance to start. That's the most important thing right now."

The group is setting up permanent headquarters at 1033 Walnut St., in donated office space. So far, it has a database of more than 500 volunteers, a number Maxwell said he expects to quickly rise to more than 1,000 people.

The group organized using social media, and is keeping its Facebook page constantly updated with current needs, though Maxwell directed interested parties to the website boulderfloodrelief.org as the most effective way to help or get help.

"We've been able to move immediately," Maxwell said. "Two days ago, we sent out small groups to clean up houses, and yesterday we had 40 people in the field, in two different neighborhoods."

Maxwell said Boulder Flood Relief is making every effort to educate its volunteers to "stay out of the way" of official responders, and to keep them safe in what could be potentially dangerous situations.

"We educate them, before they go out, not to go into any structures that look even a little bit unstable, not to provide CPR or other health care unless they are trained to do so," he said.

A spokeswoman at the Boulder Office of Emergency Management call center urged people to use "common sense" when venturing out to offer assistance. While she wouldn't comment directly on the actions of Boulder Flood Relief, she did say that groups of people forming to clean up their neighborhoods was not something the county was trying to discourage.

Mark Harrison, 31, spent the weekend with a group of friends helping to "gut and demolish" a friend's flooded basement. He said the inspiration to help came after seeing the "obvious" need of so many people on social media channels.

"The other inspiration for helping was that Saturday was the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur," Harrison said. "It's a day of repentance and self reflection; spending the day helping others just seemed right."

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